The invention relates to composites combining inorganic particles and polymers. The invention further relates to inorganic particles that are functionalized for chemical bonding to other compounds, particularly to polymers.
Advances in a variety of fields have created a demand for many types of new materials. In particular, a variety of chemical powders can be used in many different processing contexts. Specifically, inorganic powders can be used in the production of electronic devices, such as flat panel displays, electronic circuits and optical and electro-optical materials.
Similarly, technological advances have increased the demand for improved material processing with strict tolerances on processing parameters. As miniaturization continues even further, material parameters will need to fall within stricter tolerances. Current integrated circuit technology already requires tolerances on processing dimensions on a submicron scale. Self-assembly approaches have been developed to provide additional options for the application of very thin films of materials. However, self-assembly approaches generally have been limited with respect to the types of materials that can be deposited by a particular approach.
The consolidation or integration of mechanical, electrical and optical components into integral devices has created further demands on material processing. Therefore, there is considerable interest in the formation of specific compositions applied to substrates to perform specific functions. In order to form optical devices with high quality optical coatings from these materials, the coatings must be highly uniform.
Composite materials can be used to combine desirable properties of different materials to obtain improved materials. Alternatively, composite materials can be formed to capture improved or more flexible processing capabilities associated with one material with desirable properties of another material. Thus, in the composite materials, desirable properties of one material can be incorporated into a wider range of structures based on the processing capabilities enabled by another component of the composite. For composites to be useful in certain applications the composites must be structurally stable.